The directive came in response to a clarification sought by the miner on whether it should sign supply pacts with new thermal plants on the terms mentioned in the existing contracts or the new agreements, which significantly dilute the miner's supply obligations.

"The ministry has asked us to sign the new FSAs for plants to be set up between January 2012 and March 2015," Coal India chairman S Narsing Rao said. "We received the ministry's clarification last week."

Coal India had approached the ministry as a presidential directive asked it to sign FSAs for plants that came up between April 2009 and December 2011, but it did not mention anything about plants commissioned after this period.

According to the ministry, about 40,000 MW of power generation capacities would be commissioned between January 2012 and March 2015.

Sector experts say this will increase pressure on the state-run miner, which is already struggling to meet the fuel demand of existing power units.

Coal India missed its revised 2011-12 production target, achieving only 435.84 million tonne against the projected 447 mt.

"The new plants will require about 170 mt of additional coal a year," a Coal India official said on condition of anonymity.

Coal India is also facing stiff resistance from power companies over the new FSAs, which these companies say are heavily loaded in favour of the miner.

Coal India has not been able to convince power producers, including the country's largest NTPC, to sign the new agreements even three weeks after the drafts were sent to them. Of the 50 FSAs it was supposed to sign, Coal India has managed to sign only 13.

The decision to invite new units to sign the same FSAs is likely to irk power producers even more. Power producers want to sign the FSAs on the terms of the existing contracts, which stipulate that if Coal Indi fails to supply 80% of the contracted coal, it will pay 40% of the value of the shortfall as penalty. This penalty has been reduced to 0.01% in the new FSAs.

"There are some basic differences between the old set of FSA and the new FSA," an executive with a power company said. "The new FSA includes a set of force majeure clause that shields Coal India from breakdown of machinery, non-supply of spares by its vendors or non availability of explosives."